होमी जहांगीर भाभा Homi J. Bhabha

Life and career

  1. 1909 · Born in Bombay. Born on 30 October 1909 into a wealthy Parsi family in Bombay. His father was a well-known lawyer. As a boy he heard his uncle Dorabji Tata talk with leaders such as Gandhi and Motilal Nehru. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha)
  2. 1927 · Bombay schooling and first canvases. He passed the Senior Cambridge Examination with honours at 15. He studied at Elphinstone College and then the Royal Institute of Science in 1927. A lecture there by Arthur Compton introduced him to cosmic rays. At 17 his self-portrait took second place at the Bombay Art Society exhibition. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha)
  3. 1928 · Cambridge and the turn to physics. He joined Gonville and Caius College in 1928. His father and uncle wanted him to be an engineer. He wrote home “Physics is my line. I know I shall do great things here.” He took first-class honours in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1930 and the Mathematics Tripos in 1932. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Britannica: Homi Bhabha)
  4. 1933 · Rome and Zurich. In 1933 he won the Isaac Newton scholarship. It funded three years that included work with Enrico Fermi in Rome. His first paper with Wolfgang Pauli appeared the same year. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha)
  5. 1935 · Doctorate and Bhabha scattering. He took his doctorate in 1935 under Ralph Fowler at the Cavendish Laboratory. His thesis was on cosmic radiation and the creation and annihilation of positrons and electrons. His paper on positrons scattered by electrons appeared in 1936. The process now carries his name. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Wikipedia: Bhabha scattering)
  6. 1937 · Cascade theory of cosmic-ray showers. With Walter Heitler he explained how cosmic-ray showers grow in a cascade of electrons and photons. The 1937 paper also pointed to “heavy electrons” in cosmic rays. Later work linked these to the muon. In 1939 he argued in Nature for the name “meson”. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha)
  7. 1939 · Stranded by war. Bangalore under Raman. He was visiting India when the Second World War began and he stayed. He took up a readership in physics at the Indian Institute of Science under C. V. Raman. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust funded his cosmic-ray research. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1941. In 1942 he became the first Indian to win the Adams Prize. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Britannica: Homi Bhabha)
  8. 1945 · The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. On 12 March 1944 he wrote to the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust proposing an institute of fundamental research. The trustees agreed in April. TIFR began in Bangalore in June 1945 and moved to a Peddar Road bungalow in Bombay. It was formally inaugurated on 19 December 1945. (Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009) · Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Wikipedia: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research · Founding Fuel: The birth of a model scientific institute (15 May 2021))
  9. 1948 · Atomic Energy Commission. The Atomic Energy Act was passed in April 1948. On 26 April he sent Nehru a note proposing a small and high-powered commission answerable to the Prime Minister. The Atomic Energy Commission was set up in August with him as its first chairman. (Department of Atomic Energy: A brief history · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009) · Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha)
  10. 1954 · Trombay and the Department of Atomic Energy. He set up the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay in January 1954. The Department of Atomic Energy followed on 4 August with him as secretary. In November he presented his three-stage plan for nuclear power built on thorium. He received the Padma Bhushan that year. (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: About BARC · Department of Atomic Energy: A brief history · Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha)
  11. 1955 · President of the Geneva conference. He presided over the first UN Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva in August 1955. His opening address on world energy supply was widely praised. Lord Penney called it “a brilliant essay about energy and population”. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Britannica: Homi Bhabha · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009))
  12. 1956 · Apsara and CIRUS. Apsara went critical on 4 August 1956. It was the first research reactor in Asia to do so and TIFR built its control systems. Nehru inaugurated the Trombay laboratories on 20 January 1957. CIRUS, built with Canada, followed on 10 July 1960. (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: About BARC · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009))
  13. 1962 · A new campus and a space committee. Nehru inaugurated TIFR’s seafront campus at Colaba on 15 January 1962. That year the Indian National Committee for Space Research was set up under Vikram Sarabhai, largely on Bhabha’s initiative. The first rocket rose from Thumba on 21 November 1963. (Wikipedia: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009))
  14. 1964 · China’s test and the bomb debate. On 4 October 1964 in London he said India could test within 18 months if it decided to. He said he did not expect that decision. China tested on 16 October. About a week later he spoke on All India Radio about deterrence and the cost of atomic weapons. India’s ambassador told Washington that Bhabha put a reasonable nuclear capability at $20 million. Prime Minister Shastri disputed his figures. In November Shastri defeated a motion for nuclear weapons and backed research on peaceful nuclear explosions. (Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Atomic Heritage Foundation: Indian Nuclear Program · US Office of the Historian: FRUS 1964–68 Vol. XXV, Document 74 (3 November 1964))
  15. 1966 · Death on Mont Blanc. On 24 January 1966 Air India Flight 101 crashed into Mont Blanc on its approach to Geneva. All 117 people on board died. He was on his way to an IAEA meeting in Vienna. Vikram Sarabhai succeeded him as chairman of the AEC. Indira Gandhi renamed Trombay the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. (Wikipedia: Air India Flight 101 · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009) · British Journal for the History of Science: Unfriendly guardians, India’s first nuclear leadership change in 1966 (2021) · Britannica: Homi Bhabha)

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